Friday, December 01, 2017

The suit is the latest headache for the Virginia governor as he mulls a presidential bid.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's brother Anthony Rodham are facing a $17 million fraud lawsuit from Chinese investors in Greentech Automotive, an electric car company that appears to be struggling to survive.

A group of 32 Chinese citizens filed the suit last week in Fairfax County, Virginia court, claiming that they were swindled out of about $560,000 apiece as a result of misrepresentations made by McAuliffe and Rodham—two of the most prominent and politically connected proponents of the venture aimed at manufacturing electric cars in the U.S.

One of those accusations, albeit said in jest, was caught on tape back in 2012, when Katie Couric, who co-anchored the Today show with Lauer from 1991 to 2006, said during an interview that Lauer would routinely touch her.

In a push to end the secrecy surrounding sexual harassment inside the U.S. Capitol, House lawmakers on Wednesday introduced legislation to bar the use of taxpayer dollars to settle misconduct claims against members of Congress -- and to name names.

“Enough is enough,” Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, one of the bill’s sponsors, said. “For far too long sexual predators have roamed freely through the halls of Congress -- the people’s house -- while survivors of sexual harassment and assault have essentially been isolated, bullied and shamed into silence.”

Numerous allegations of sexual misconduct by powerful players in politics, business and the media have put pressure on Congress in recent weeks to improve its outdated method of addressing complaints.

A little-known law that has been on the books for more than a decade gives anyone accusing a federal lawmaker of sexual harassment the right to sue – but only if they consent to a drawn-out process that includes counseling and mediation.

A Russian cosmonaut has said that the bacteria recently found on the International Space Station and brought back to earth, is extra-terrestrial. The bacteria did not originate from Earth, however, raising more questions.

Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov says he found bacteria clinging to the external surface of the International Space Station that didn’t come from the surface of Earth. The bacteria was swabbed from the exterior of the ISS years ago, but begs the question, just how did it get there?

“And now it turns out that somehow these swabs reveal bacteria that were absent during the launch of the ISS module,” Shkaplerov told the Russian news agency Tass. “That is, they have come from outer space and settled along the external surface. They are being studied so far and it seems that they pose no danger.” In particular, the Russians took probes from places where the accumulation of fuel waste was discharged during the engines’ operation or at places where the station’s surface is more obscure. After that, the samples were sent back to Earth.

Update: House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has had a change of heart regarding her colleague John Conyers - whom she recently praised as an "icon" who fought for civil rights and women's rights. A day after the Washington Post published a story about how Congressional Democrats were divided over the issue of whether Conyers should resign, Pelosi is saying that she now believes he should resign. As we reported below, Conyers was hospitalized in his hometown of Detroit earlier today, reportedly due to "stress". She called the allegations against her colleague "serious", "disappointing" and "very credible."

A day after reports emerged that Michigan Rep. John Conyers wouldn't seek re-election in 2018, ending a more than 50-year career in the House, local media reported that he had been hospitalized after returning to the Detroit area.

Conyers' office confirmed the congressman is hospitalized but did not say why or at which hospital. Political consultant Sam Riddle spoke to reporters Thursday morning and said Conyers was hospitalized due to stress. Riddle said he spoke to Conyers' wife, Monica Conyers, Thursday morning.

"I just spoke with Monica Conyers on the phone and we want you to know that the congressman is resting comfortably in an area hospital. He's doing OK, as well as he can be expected for a gentleman that's approaching 90 years of age," Riddle said. "The congressman's health is not what it should be and lot of that is directly attributable to this media assault."

SANTA ANA, Calif. – An attorney who lives in El Monte pleaded guilty today to federal fraud and money laundering charges for participating in a multi-faceted scheme that collected more than $50 million from foreign investors seeking “Green Cards” through the EB-5 visa program.

Victoria Chan, who along with her father operated a San Gabriel-based business called California Investment Immigration Fund, LLC (CIIF), admitted that she exploited the EB-5 visa program, which provides lawful permanent residence – commonly known as a “Green Card” – to foreign nationals who invest at least $500,000 in a domestic business that creates 10 new American jobs.

The ongoing investigation into the EB-5 fraud scheme is being conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the FBI and IRS-Criminal Investigation. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) also provided valuable assistance in the investigation and prosecution of the case.

MIAMI - The Coast Guard completed a transfer of 24 people involved in a suspected human smuggling case Saturday to U.S. Border Patrol agents in Lake Worth for processing, and to Homeland Security Investigations for further investigation.

The Coast Guard Station Lake Worth Inlet, Palm Beach Sheriff's Office, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations intercepted a 25-foot center console boat approximately 9 miles east of West Palm Beach.

The suspected smugglers are reportedly one U.S. citizen and one Bahamian. The passengers included six Haitians, six Ecuadorians, four Chinese, three Bolivians, two Azerbaijanis and one Dominican.

"The Coast Guard, along with our federal and state partners, will continue to target, interdict and prosecute smugglers trying to reach the United States undetected" said Capt. Mark Vlaun, Coast Guard 7th District staff judge advocate.

Approximately 45 miles separate the South Florida and Bahamian coasts. The area in between is constantly patrolled by the Coast Guard, and Air and Marine Operations partners to detect, deter and stop illegal smuggling ventures.

"These human smuggling networks continuously attempt to exploit our proximity to the Bahamas and illegally traffic people to our shores," said Capt. AlDante Vinciguerra, Coast Guard 7th District chief of response. "This case highlights the importance and strength of our cooperative border security efforts with all of our partners."

The Clinton Foundation “vastly understated support that the Clinton Global Initiative received from APCO Worldwide, a global communications firm that lobbied on behalf of Russia’s state-owned nuclear company,” John Solomon and Alison Spann report in the Hill.

The Clinton Foundation’s donor disclosure site lists APCO’s donations as between $25,000 to $50,000. However, the Hill’s own investigation of internal documents and interviews with sources reveal that APCO “provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in pro-bono services and in-kind contributions to the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) between 2008 and 2016.”

The Hill also reports that Russia’s government-owned nuclear company Rosatom hired APCO to lobby Hillary Clinton’s State Department and other U.S. federal agencies. When Rosatom acquired a controlling stake in the Canadian mining company Uranium One in 2010, the sale required, and was eventually granted, approval by the Obama administration because the sale effectively transferred Uranium One’s 20 percent of U.S. domestic uranium supply to the Kremlin-backed Rosatom.

Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, told his parliament last week that he has “no intention” of accepting more migrants despite pressure from the UN Refugee Agency.

During a debate in Japan’s parliament, Mr. Abe argued that accepting foreign workers should is justifiable only where they are truly needed to “keep Japan’s economy and infrastructure sustainable.”

The 63-year-old prime minister is a confirmed nationalist and an admirer of U.S. President Donald Trump, and has pursued a “Japan-first” economic policy that has been compared to that of Mr. Trump.

The admiration seems to be mutual, and the two leaders spent a fair amount of time together during Trump’s Asia trip earlier this month. “Our relationship is really extraordinary,” Mr. Trump said. “We like each other and our countries like each other. And I don’t think we’ve ever been closer to Japan than we are right now.”

Japan is an ethnically homogeneous nation, with less than 2 percent of the population foreign born, and its immigration policies are designed to defend Japan’s cultural identity as well as to insure national security. It also aims to protect the local job market to keep unemployment to a minimum.More here

Why would Christian conservatives in good conscience go to the polls Dec. 12 and vote for Judge Roy Moore, despite the charges of sexual misconduct with teenagers leveled against him?

Answer: That Alabama Senate race could determine whether Roe v. Wade is overturned. The lives of millions of unborn may be the stakes.

Republicans now hold 52 Senate seats. If Democrats pick up the Alabama seat, they need only two more to recapture the Senate, and with it the power to kill any conservative court nominee, as they killed Robert Bork.

Today, the GOP, holding Congress and the White House, has a narrow path to capture the Third Branch, the Supreme Court, and to dominate the federal courts for a decade. For this historic opportunity, the party can thank two senators, one retired, the other still sitting.

The first is former Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada..More here

As mild temperatures encompass a large swath of the contiguous United States this week, parts of Siberia are experiencing temperatures colder than minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit – and it's only November.

A low temperature of minus 69 degrees was recorded early Tuesday in Delyankir, Russia. This is colder than the all-time record lows in every U.S. state except Utah (-69 degrees), Montana (-70 degrees) and Alaska (-80 degrees).

If that wasn't incredible enough, the daytime high in Delyankir Tuesday failed to rise above -60 degrees.

Temperatures this extreme are par for the course in this area during the heart of winter, but it's significantly colder than the average November low of close to minus 40.

A weather pattern change a week to 10 days from now could cause some air from near the Arctic Circle to spill into the central and eastern U.S.More

The left’s rising hostility toward Israel has alienated many Jews, but progressives want the Jewish community to put aside its misgivings and present a united front against what they see as a greater threat: President Trump

At a Tuesday night forum called “Antisemitism and the Struggle for Justice,” an unlikely panel of four Israel detractors, led by Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour, argued that Jews need to stop labeling foes of Zionism as anti-Semitic and join the left in fighting the Trump administration.

“We are now living under fascism. That’s what I believe, and we need all hands on deck,” Ms. Sarsour told the crowd of about 500 at the event, hosted by the New School in New York City.

Does that mean that progressives are ready to tone down their scathing denunciations of Israel? Not really.

Lina Morales, a coordinator of Jewish Voice for Peace and a self-described “passionate anti-Zionist,” compared Israel to a Netflix series about a fictitious Nazi takeover of America.More

As that old adage states, appearances are not always what they seem. On Wednesday, the nation learned the shocking news that Matt Lauer, the face of NBC’s “Today” show for the past 20 years, had been fired over multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. Since the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault revelations broke two months ago, the country has witnessed a steady stream of powerful men in media being brought down over allegations of sexual misbehavior. The ones in government just keep trucking along.

When NBC News Chairman Andy Lack announced the firing, he said that this was the first complaint that had been raised against Lauer in over 20 years. However, that claim now seems dubious as news about Lauer’s alleged behavior has begun to trickle out. If anything, it’s beginning to sound like the NBC News office mirrored that of the TV show “Mad Men,” with the regularity of off-color jokes and “a lot of consensual relationships.” A former producer with firsthand knowledge said, “[Lauer] couldn’t sleep around town with celebrities or on the road with random people, because he’s Matt Lauer and he’s married. So, he’d have to do it within his stable, where he exerted power, and he knew people wouldn’t ever complain.”

Earlier this month, Lauer’s longtime booker and close colleague, Matt Zimmerman, whom Lauer had promoted into an executive position, was fired over sexual harassment complaints. Variety magazine reported that employees at “Today” were well aware of rumors regarding Lauer’s behavior, with one former reporter saying, “Management sucks there. They protected the s— out of Matt Lauer.”

In what now is an amazingly eerie interview for its blatant hypocrisy, earlier this year, Lauer grilled Bill O'Reilly, who had been fired by Fox News over allegations of sexual misconduct.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Thursday that the Senate Judiciary Committee is moving at a "hurried pace" to approve President Donald Trump's judicial nominees, more quickly than when President Barack Obama's nominees were approved.

"I've served on the Judiciary Committee since January of 1993, and during my entire tenure our committee has never held hearings for five circuit court nominees in a single month," Feinstein said, according to the Washington Examiner.

"In fact, the committee considered just five circuit court nominees during the final two years of the Obama presidency. So only five were considered during Obama's final two years and now the committee is moving the same number of nominees in a single month," the senator added.

For the past three years John Cannon has served as Council President, even though the County Council for decades agreed to switch the presidents seat on an annual basis between the various council members.The Good Ol' Boys continue to ramrod their choice of who should lead the way and one thing is for sure, there are other Council Members who would like to hold that position.So when we at Salisbury News look at how things have been done over the past three years, do you realize that there's only been twenty-four actual meetings held this year. In the past, Council Presidents would arrange one to two work sessions each week; however, with Cannon, there have been no separate work sessions outside of regularly scheduled Council Meetings.Clearly, Cannon doesn't want to WORK and is highly negligent in his duties. Instead, he wants to cram everything into those mere twenty-four meetings and, no matter what anyone says, the Council cannot conduct ALL of the County's business professionally in such a small window of time. Thus, something needs to change immediately.

In September 2012, Libyan Islamists killed American Ambassador Chris Stevens as well as Sean Patrick Smith, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty in the infamous Benghazi attack. One of the perpetrators, Ahmed Abu Khattala — the primary facilitator in the attack — remained in Libya for nearly two years after the assault before U.S. Delta Forces apprehended him in the summer of 2014. From there he was shipped to the U.S., where he faced a civilian trial that concluded this week. The outcome of that trial has many people under the reasonable impression that justice didn’t prevail.

According to Fox News, “A federal jury found Ahmed Abu Khattala guilty Tuesday on just four of 18 charges related to the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, precluding him from facing the death penalty.

Former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy believes one of the problems in the upshot of the case revolves around the previous administration’s handling in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

Tyrone Woods’ father Charles reacted with justified dismay. He stated, “I am very bothered by the fact the U.S. government gave constitutional rights and due process rights to a foreign national who allegedly killed Americans outside the U.S.."More

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Gateway International Bridge intercepted a load of alleged methamphetamine and heroin. CBP officers discovered the alleged narcotics, valued at approximately $1,996,629, ...

YUMA, Ariz. – Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents seized approximately $90,000 worth of methamphetamine Tuesday morning at the immigration checkpoint on Highway 95, south of Quartzsite, Arizona; and later rescued a Honduran national from the Colorado...

EDINBURG, Texas – On Thursday, November 23, 2017, the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office contacted the Falfurrias Border Patrol Station regarding a lost subject near Encino, Texas. Agents responded to the last known GPS coordinates of the phone call and...

EDINBURG, Texas – On Saturday, November 25, 2017, agents assigned to the McAllen Border Patrol Station apprehended a Mexican national near Cuevitas, Texas. Record checks revealed the male subject was arrested in 2008 by the Federal Way, Washington...

A jury found seven-time felon, five times deported illegal alien Jose Garcia Zarate not guilty in the case of the 2015 murder of Kate Steinle Thursday evening.

The only count Zarate was found guilty on was felony possession of a weapon.

Thirty-two-year-old Steinle was shot and killed on a pier in San Francisco in 2015 while walking with her father. Her final words were pleas to her father for help, as she died in his arms.

Zarate, previously known as Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez, previously confessed to shooting Steinle in a jailhouse interview with a local ABC News affiliate. He also told the outlet that he had chosen to go to San Francisco because he knew it was a sanctuary city.

A U.S. government agency confirmed in a letter to the Clarion Project that an investigation into a terror-linked Islamist cult named Muslims of America (MOA) is ongoing. The group is known for its “Islamic villages” in North America, with its “Islamberg” headquarters receiving the most attention.

The October 19 letter from the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) states that 10 documents from a previous investigation into MOA must be withheld because “the investigation related to the documents that were referred is still open.”

The Salisbury Jaycess will present the 71st Annual Salisbury Christmas Parade on Sunday, December 3rd at 2pm. This year's theme is "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree'.

Staging of the parade will take place along Civic Avenue in the former Salisbury Mall lot. The parade will begin at Mt. Hermon Road and Civic Avenue and move west along Mt. Hermon Road to East Main Street. It will end at the intersection of Ward and East Main Streets.

We encourage local businesses and organizations to participate in the parade! Entries are due no than later than November 16, 2017.

For a registration form and more information, visit our website http://salisburyjc.com/chapter-projects/christmas-parade

President Trump has made it widely known that he will not tolerate sanctuary cities like Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Since taking office, he has threatened to slash federal funding to cities who do not comply with federal immigrations laws,along with ICE agents circumnavigating local authorities in a nationwide federal operation to arrest undocumented immigrants.

In the latest immigration raids, ICE agents targeted a Swiss supplier of hamburger buns for McDonald’s Corp., who said it’s Chicago bakery lost 35% or about 800 of its workers at the Cloverhill Plant.

The company is owned by Zurich-based Aryzta AG, who makes baked products for fast-food chains and supermarkets.

Barack Obama will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday during the former president's foreign trip to Asia and Europe.

It will be the first time the two have met since Obama left office.

"As president, Obama forged a close and cooperative partnership with President Xi on issues ranging from growing the global economy to combating climate change, and he looks forward to catching up with his former counterpart," Obama spokeswoman Katie Hill said in a statement.

I’m sorry, but what the heck has happened to cartoons? Not only are they hideously ugly to look at and filled with vulgar humor, but they all seem to be spewing some sort of leftist ideology. I mean, seriously, what’s wrong with slipping on banana peels and having anvils fall on your head? Is that not funny anymore? Why does everything have to have a sanctimonious message?

Take Star vs. The Forces of Evil, which airs on Disney XD, for example. The latest episode of this show is being lauded all over the internet for depicting Disney’s “first boy princess.”

Secret donors are financing the lawsuit against President Donald Trump and White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney over who runs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Deepak Gupta, the lead lawyer of a boutique law firm that launched its suit on behalf of CFPB acting director Leandra English, confirmed in a CNBC interview that English is not paying for his hourly fees, but rather unknown anonymous donors are.

Gupta refused to name who is funding the lawsuit, making it difficult to ascertain the motives, intentions, or any special interests of those underwriting the case.

The D.C. lawyer appeared caught off guard when CNBC hosts asked who was financing his effort. He stumbled over his words in his first answer and said some form of unidentified “structure” was being put in place to accept funds from anonymous donors.

“Well, uh, it’s, it’s not, um, Miss, um English, um, ah. There are ethics lawyers that we’ve consulted, and we have a structure set up that is with ethics rules and, um, we’ll and we’ll be talking about that once we have that,” he told CNBC.

When repeatedly asked who is paying for the case, which could go all the way to the Supreme Court, Gupta answered, “It’s just not appropriate for me to be talking about that right now.”

"San Francisco’s policy of refusing to honor ICE detainers is a blatant threat to public safety and undermines the rule of law. This tragedy could have been prevented if San Francisco had simply turned the alien over to ICE, as we requested, instead of releasing him back onto the streets. It is unconscionable that politicians across this country continue to endanger the lives of Americans with sanctuary policies while ignoring the harm inflicted on their constituents. Following the conclusion of this case, ICE will work to take custody of Mr. Garcia Zarate and ultimately remove him from the country."

The majority of graduating students at a Washington, D.C. high school did not attend more than six weeks of high school, but still managed to get into college, an investigation into the students’ records found.

NPR and WAMU looked into the seniors who graduated from Ballou High School in 2017, a school located in a poverty stricken area of the nation’s capital, to see how much school the graduating students missed. Ballou High School was previously heavily praised for all students in its senior class getting into college.

Almost half of the graduates had unexcused absences that totaled to more than three months of missed school, documents obtained by NPR and WAMU reveal. About 20 percent of the high school graduates were absent more times than they were present for classes, emails and records also show.

The District of Columbia Public Schools system policy states that students who misses a class more than 30 times should fail that class, according to WAMU.

President Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, is expected to plead guilty on Friday to lying to the F.B.I. about a conversation with the Russian ambassador last December.

The plea would be the latest indication that Mr. Flynn was cooperating with the special counsel’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mr. Flynn was scheduled to appear in federal court in Washington at 10:30 on Friday morning.

“Members of Congress must abide by the same standards of conduct as employers in the private sector. Unfortunately, some Members of Congress have demonstrated that they do not respect physical and verbal boundaries in the workplace. Today, the U.S. House of Representatives took a major step to prevent workplace discrimination and harassment by passing H.Res. 630. The mandatory training program outlined in this resolution will reinforce the standards of conduct that are expected in the workplace for all Members and staff. I am proud to support this resolution, and I commend Congresswoman Comstock for bringing this resolution to the House floor.”

Has anyone mentioned that the new company Wicomico County signed to do school pictures this year. Delivered empty packages to a slew of parents. When the school was asked the parents were told the company was not answering or returning calls. These parents have already paid in advance for the photos. The company is Barksdale. School only said that hopefully they can address when they return for retakes.

The solution is simpler than it seems. There’s a tried and tested way, within the system we have now, of giving everyone a share in the investment returns now hoarded by the wealthy. It’s called a social wealth fund, a pool of investment assets in some ways like the giant index or mutual funds already popular with retirement savings accounts or pension funds, but one owned collectively by society as a whole. One that paid dividends not to the few, or even just to the shrinking middle class lucky enough to have their savings invested, but to everyone.

It may be our best chance to stop a decades-long trend of rising wealth inequality that has only accelerated since the Great Recession. According to new data released by the Federal Reserve, the collapse of the housing bubble and the ensuing financial crisis caused the net worth of virtually all families, rich and poor, to drop sharply between 2007 and 2010. But during the post-2010 economic recovery, the fortunes of the wealthiest grew rapidly while nearly everyone else’s lagged behind.

Tuesday on Huntsville, AL radio’s WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show,” Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) argued the allegations aimed at GOP U.S. Senate hopeful Roy Moore were nothing more than an effort of character assassination and wouldn’t hold up in court.

Brooks called the evidence propping up some of the allegations “flimsy” and said if he as a lawyer was appointed by a judge to take a side, he would pick the defendant’s side give the known circumstances.

Transcript as follows:

"Dale, racial division, character assassination – those kinds of things are at the heart of every Democratic campaign. And this instance – they will know that with the aid of the mainstream news media that character assassination works. You know, I’ve been a litigator in a court of law where you try to ascertain the truth for over three decades. I was a prosecutor in the Tuscaloosa County District Attorney’s office. I was the District Attorney in Madison County. When I was in the private sector, I represented criminal defendants when I was appointed to do so by judges.

"And I represented people in civil court in normal litigation – person versus person or business. And my evaluation of the evidence is that there is only the remotest of possible chances that if this went to a court of law that jury would find Roy Moore guilty of anything.."

The Clinton Foundation “vastly understated support that the Clinton Global Initiative received from APCO Worldwide, a global communications firm that lobbied on behalf of Russia’s state-owned nuclear company,” John Solomon and Alison Spannreport in the Hill.

The Clinton Foundation’s donor disclosure site lists APCO’s donations as between $25,000 to $50,000. However, the Hill’s own investigation of internal documents and interviews with sources reveal that APCO “provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in pro-bono services and in-kind contributions to the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) between 2008 and 2016.”

The Hill also reports that Russia’s government-owned nuclear company Rosatom hired APCO to lobby Hillary Clinton’s State Department and other U.S. federal agencies. When Rosatom acquired a controlling stake in the Canadian mining company Uranium One in 2010, the sale required, and was eventually granted, approval by the Obama administration because the sale effectively transferred Uranium One’s 20 percent of U.S. domestic uranium supply to the Kremlin-backed Rosatom. APCO issued a statement to the Hill denying any involvement with the Uranium One deal.

National reciprocity for concealed carry passed the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday is expected to receive a floor vote before the end of the year.

The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 was introduced by Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) on January 3, 2017. It changes federal law that so concealed carry permits are treated like driver’s licenses, making a permit from one state valid in the other 49. This would fix the complicated and often confusing patchwork of concealed carry laws currently in effect throughout the country.

To put it simply, Hudson’s bill allows the common man to defend himself and his family as he travels throughout this country.

On November 28 Breitbart News reported that Hudson’s legislation was scheduled for a markup in the House Judiciary Committee and the markup would serve as the last stop before a floor vote.

In fact, the markup demonstrated the committee’s confidence that national reciprocity was headed to the floor.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, the very same mainstream media that attempted to disqualify then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012 over the phrase “binders full of women,” the very same media that grinded Republican senate candidate Todd Akin into dust over something he said, appears to be, itself, a depraved institution populated by powerful abusers and their enablers.

Over the past two months a number of powerful men have been fired or placed on suspension over allegations of sexual misconduct, horrific behavior that ranges from masturbating in front of female subordinates to pay-for-play. And time and time again we hear the words Everybody Knew!

You read that correctly, according to those within this wicked institution, everyone knew … and did nothing.

There is no question there is a cancer of abuse and enabling within our elite media, an institution that, through its unceasing fake news and hypocrisy on matters such as these, has deservedly lost all public trust and moral authority.

Anymore questions about why the media (along with Harveywood) want to disarm us?

Below are the names of the accused, so far. Please keep in mind what the elite media itself does not when a Republican is involved — that unless otherwise noted, these stand only as allegations.

It’s the book “every American taxpayer should read,” says international lawyer Robert “Bob” Amsterdam about his newly-released publication Empire of Deceit: An Investigation of the Gülen Charter School Network.

In an interview with Breitbart News, Amsterdam laid out details about his first-of-its-kind book. It is part of a forthcoming series of lengthy exposés detailing how a controversial Islamic Imam living in seclusion in Pennsylvania, Fethullah Gülen—through the Gülen Organization and charter schools—has created an extensive, shadowy and corrupt cult that misuses American taxpayer dollars and H-1B visas to indoctrinate young, impressionable minds.

“Gülen’s secretive Turkish cult has undermined the systems of accountability that were designed to protect Americans,” Amsterdam said, referring to over 200 schools, 81,000 students and nearly $1 billion in state and federal funding that is allegedly being poured into a network replete with human trafficking and indentured servitude, widespread manipulation of state-mandated testing, grades and attendance figures, and lobbying politicians and officials through publicly-funded trips to Turkey.

According to the book, there are nearly 81,000 students enrolled at Gülen schools across 27 states, including in the District of Columbia.

“We’ve tabulated the fraud to be about $243 million easily verifiable scams,” Amsterdam told Breitbart News. He continued:

In response to the Matt Lauer revelations, President Trump said MSNBC host Joe Scarborough should also be investigated for an “unsolved mystery,” likely referring to the death of intern Lori Klausutis in 2001.

“…And will they terminate low ratings Joe Scarborough based on the ‘unsolved mystery’ that took place in Florida years ago? Investigate!” tweeted the president on Wed. morning.

So now that Matt Lauer is gone when will the Fake News practitioners at NBC be terminating the contract of Phil Griffin? And will they terminate low ratings Joe Scarborough based on the “unsolved mystery” that took place in Florida years ago? Investigate!

Klausutis, Scarborough’s intern during his tenure as a House Representative, was found dead in his office on July 20, 2001.

The autopsy report said the 28-year-old, who suffered a head wound, had likely died from an “undiagnosed heart condition.”

Scarborough’s staff said Klausutis had “known health issues,” a claim disputed by a family member who said she was a member of a running club and had completed an 8K race with a respectable time prior to her death.

Hunters reported harvesting 13,514 deer on the opening weekend of the 2017 Maryland firearm season, the state’s most popular hunting season. The total includes 6,242 antlered and 7,272 antlerless deer, with sika deer comprising 201 of the antlered and 188 of the antlerless totals.

Anyone visiting or passing through the Downtown area of Salisbury have seen the massive revitalization construction. Mayor Day ran into a very unexpected and expensive snag with the MDE when they realized there was contaminated soil at Main Street and Rt. 13. It was estimated the disposal of that soil came to an additional $800,000.00 to get rid of at the Wicomico Landfill, $60.00 a ton.Well all of a sudden as they started another phase towards the Chamber of Commerce, they came across another snag where they once again found more contaminated soil. However, this time there's an even bigger mystery, WHERE'S THE SOIL GOING?It certainly isn't going to the Wicomico Landfill. Hopefully it isn't being spread out somewhere as fill dirt and everyone on the Shore better think twice before they take any loads from the City or their Contractor. If it smells funny, don't let them dump it!

It’s not surprising, then, that we recoiled upon hearing Clyburn’s thoughts on the sexually-charged allegations leveled against U.S. congressman John Conyers of Michigan.

To recap: Conyers has been accused by multiple women of making improper sexual advances toward them during his decades-long career in Washington. There are also reports that he used tax dollars to settle a 2015 harassment case.

Conyers has responded defiantly – denying the allegations against him and vowing to expose other congressmen.

Women who say President Bill Clinton assaulted them held a press conference on Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to add their voices as sexual misconduct scandals continue to swirl through the halls of Congress and in newsrooms near and far.

But almost no media and none of the invited lawmakers bothered to show up for the event.

Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey and Leslie Millwee were joined by other victims to call for lawmakers accused of sexual misconduct to step down, including Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), and Reps. John Conyers (D-MI) and Joe Barton (R-TX).

They also called for transparency from the Office of Compliance, which has paid out millions in taxpayer money to settle complaints filed against members of Congress, employing offices and employees. The women said any lawmaker involved in a sexual misconduct claim should be named.More

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Governor Larry Hogan today joined local, state, and federal elected officials, civic and community leaders, as well as representatives from the University of Maryland Medical System and the University of Maryland to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new state-of-the-art University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center in Largo. The governor was joined by Brad Seamon, Chair, University of Maryland Capital Region Health Board of Directors; E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland; Robert A. Chrencik, MBA, CPA, President and Chief Executive Officer University of Maryland Medical System.

The Hogan administration has committed more than $200 million toward the project, which will replace the current University of Maryland Prince George’s Hospital in Cheverly. The new facility will transform healthcare in Prince George’s County and across the Southern Maryland and Greater Capital region.

“As a proud and strong supporter of this project since day one, our administration is incredibly pleased to see that this vital and long-awaited project is finally getting underway,” said Governor Hogan. “As a University of Maryland Medical System patient during my battle with cancer, I can attest first hand that there is no better place to receive high-quality medical care than right here in our great state. And now, with this much-need project, residents will now have access to some of the best doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals in the world.”

Today’s groundbreaking marks an exciting and long-anticipated achievement after a decades-long effort to give citizens in this region the level of high quality patient care that they expect and deserve. Upon completion, the new medical center will be a destination facility and have statewide impact as it will provide care for more than one million people living in the region.

“Today we see the future within reach, and express our deep gratitude to the many individuals and entities who have played a role in bringing us this far on our mission,” said Mr. Seamon. “The thousands of employees of UM Capital Region Health stand willing, ready, and able to help drive the transformation of health care delivery across our current facilities as we envision our new regional hub in Largo rising on the horizon.”

For some, the Christmas season is a time of good will and good cheer. But for others, every season is a time to hate Whitey:

A California State University-Los Angeles professor is urging Americans to participate in a “Black Xmas” by divesting from “white corporations” and fighting “White Capitalism.”

Like all things hated by moonbats, capitalism is associated with European heritage.

In her op-ed for The Los Angeles Sentinel, Melina Abdullah, a Black Lives Matter activist and the chair of the school’s Department of Pan-African Studies, explains that “Black Xmas” is “an economic divestment from White corporations and an investment in building Black community through support for Black community organizations and businesses.”

Kids aren’t going to be thrilled with what they find under the tree if all of it has to be produced without involvement by white people. However,

The official website of the initiative provides additional instructions to participants, asking Americans to stop “spending with White corporations” between November 24, 2016 and January 1, 2018.

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Governor Larry Hogan today announced that Maryland has received federal approval from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to expand services for individuals with developmental disabilities through the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Administration’s (DDA) Family Supports Waiver. Services offered through the waiver will be available by February 2018, and this federal approval is expected to reduce the current waiting list by 400 individuals.

“Our administration is proud to be able to proactively provide this additional support for individuals with developmental disabilities, their families, and caregivers,” said Governor Hogan. “We have worked closely with families, advocates, and professionals to get the right combination of services to reduce the current waiting list, and ultimately improve the quality of life for Marylanders with disabilities.”

The waiver program will operate through the DDA under the Maryland Department of Health. Through the waiver, services will be available to individuals and families for children, from birth to age 21, with developmental disabilities who are currently on the DDA waiting list.

The program’s specific goals include providing: innovative service options that build on the Support Families Community of Practice; individual and family self-direction opportunities; increased flexibility for individuals and families to allocate financial resources within their approved person-centered plan; and short-term exceptions to the overall budget caps based on exceptional needs.

The Family Supports Waiver program offers innovative community-based features such as coordinated staff support, which will be available for individuals who qualify after school, nights, weekends, and during the summer months when school is not in session.

In addition to staff support, the waiver takes a proactive and family-oriented approach to ensuring best practices for inclusive disability support services. These practices include assistive technology, behavioral support, environmental assessments, environmental modifications, family caregiver training, family and peer mentoring supports, participant education, training and advocacy, respite care, transportation, and vehicle modifications.

“We have been listening to what people with developmental disabilities want their lives to look like and have created support services that we believe will assist them in achieving their personal vision of a good life,” said Bernard Simons, Developmental Disabilities Administration Deputy Secretary for Maryland Department of Health. “The approval of this waiver brings us one step closer to our transformation to a more flexible, person-centered, family-oriented system of supports.”

Additional information on the Family Supports Waiver can be found here.

Another woman has come forward to claim that while she was deployed in Kuwait she took a photo with Franken while he was still working as a comedian, during which he cupped one of her breasts.

The veteran’s name is Stephanie Kemplin of Ohio, and at 41, she would have been approximately 27 during her tour when she met Franken in December of 2003. Kemplin is the fifth woman to come forward in the last two weeks to accuse Franken of inappropriate touching, and the second woman to allege that the harassment took place while Franken was working with the USO. Kemplin describes what happened, after she had waited in line to take a photo with Franken:

“When he put his arm around me, he groped my right breast. He kept his hand all the way over on my breast… And I remember thinking: is he going to move his hand? Was it an accident? Was he going to move his hand?”

Salisbury, MD - The Health Department is pleased to announce that our Behavioral Health Program was awarded a 3 year accreditation status through October 31, 2020 from CARF International (The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities).

According the CARF International report, "Wicomico County Health Department demonstrated substantial conformance to the standards, the organization has caring, dedicated and knowledgeable staff that demonstrates pride in both its program services and in the progress of its patients" The programs that fall under this accreditation status include the Outpatient Mental Health Center, Outpatient Substance Abuse Program and the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Program for children, adolescents and adults. Our Behavioral Health Program serves over 2,000 individuals on an annual basis. This was achieved through a collaborative effort by numerous staff.

STERLING HEIGHTS, MI -- It was just after 9 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 27 when one of Marcia Rabideau's managers beat on the door of the Sterling Heights Arby's and yelled, "I just was robbed!"

Rabideau said she could see the alleged armed robber running so she jumped into her Dodge Charger and gave chase, cornering him at a river bank where she then pulled her Glock 9mm pistol and held him until police showed up.

Police, however generally advise against people chasing robbers, especially those who are armed with a weapon.

"I didn't think, I just reacted," Rabideau said. "Just being stupid, I guess."

Fighting crime could be in Rabideau's DNA, as she used to head Saginaw's Arson Watch to keep arsonists from setting fires on the night before Halloween and her husband is the police chief for the village of St. Charles and a retired Saginaw police officer.